Method for cleaning stills



Oct. 13, 1931. L. c. HUFF 1,827,085

METHOD FOR CLEANING STILLS i inal Filed 30. 1925 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 I N VEN TOR.

Lyman 6171119 I Zm;

A TTORNEY.

Oct. 13, 1931. L. c. HUFF METHOD FOR CLEANING STILLS Original Filed Aug. 30, 1923 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 I NVEN TOR. l /ma/z dill/f Oct. 13, 1931. 1.. c. HUFF METHOD FOR CLEANING STILLS Original Filed Aug. 30, 1923 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 {0 lhllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll I NVEN TOR. Lyman Gflaff Patented Oct. 13, 1931 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE LYMAN C. HUFF, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR 'I'O UNIVERSAL OIL PRODUCTS COMPANY, 01' CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION 01' SOUTH DAKOTA.

- METHOD FOR CLEANING STILLS Original application filed August 30, 1923, Serial No. 680,098. Divided and this application filed March 23, 1927. -Serial No. 177,818.

l ticularly to a method used in connection with stills, retorts, or chambers which must be cleaned subsequent to or during operation in connection with process where foreign or deposited materials collect and accumulate in the chambers.

' threaded throughout a portion of its length in order that it may be raised and lowered Among the salient objects of the invention are to provide an apparatus particularly adapted for use in connection with the clean ing of vaporizing chambers connected 1n cracking systems wherein are deposlted and accumulated carbonaceous substances elther in a solid or semi-solid state.

Fig. 1 is an elevational View of an apparatus suitable to carry out this method and showing the vapor chamber positioned therebeneath. Fig. 2 is a view taken along the line 22 in Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a plan vlewof the apparatus shown in Figs. 1 and 2. F g. 4 is a detail taken along the line 44 in Fig. 3, and Fig. 5 is an enlarged view of the upper portion of the apparatus shown in Fig. 2.

Referring to the drawings, the apparatus is particularly adapted to use where there are a number or battery of units and a plurality of vapor chambers to be cleaned. The apparatus consists of uprights 1 of steel or other suitable material upon wh ch are mounted horizontals 2 shown as I beams in the drawings. Above the horizontal supports are bed plates 3 which carry the rails or tracks 4. Positioned on the track and carried by the flanged wheels 5 is a carriage or truck 6 which has mounted thereon a tripod arrangement or support shown at 7 which carries the rotatable casing 8 which bearsupon the upper roller bearing 9 and the lower roller bearing 10. Within the rotatable casing is a sleeve 11 which may be raised or lowered by means of mechanism hereinafter explained.

Within the sleeve is a shaft 12 screw by a mechanism from above.

Briefly, the operation of the device is as follows: The carriage 6 is rolled along the track 5, the track being positioned above the vaporlzing chamber such as that shown at 13. When the carriage is directly above the vaporizing chamber, the top closure or removable plate 14 which is bolted on and serves to keep the chamber pressure tight, is opened. The carriage is then securely attached to'the rails and bed plates by means of books diagrammatically shown at 15 and which may be equipped with turn buckles in order to hold the carriage rigidly in place on the tracks during the cleaning operation. When the carriage has been fixedly attached to the bed plate, the sleeve 11 which carries the inner shaft 12 is lowered by means of the motor 16 which is geared thereto through the meshing gears 17 and 18, the latter meshing with the rack-ll-a machined in the periphery of the casing or sleeve, or comprising a toothed strip attached to the sleeve. The sleeve 11 is carried by the casing 8 which is supported by the upper and lower roller bearings 9 and 10. This casing is rotated by the motor 19 carried by a support 20 attached to one of the tripod legs 7 Upon the shaft of the motor 19 is a gear 21 which meshes with the girth gear 22 cut in the lower portion of the casing. The motor 16 is carried by the lower enlarged portion of the casing in which the girth gear is cut. On the carriage is a motor 23 whose power is transmitted through gears 24 and 25 to a gear 26 mounted upon one of the axles 27 of the carriage for moving the carriage from place to place along the track, that is, to transfer the carriage and apparatus'from above one vapor chamber to the next as it is necessary to cleanthe different units. On the upper part of the sleeve 11 is a bracket 28 which carries the motor 29, upon the shaft of which is mounted a bevel gear 30. This bevel gear meshes with a second bevel gear 31 which is screw threaded to accommodate threads on the shaft 12.

The bevel gear 31 is held in place by a confining arm 32 rigidly attached to the sleeve 11 and terminating above the beveled gear in the form of a collar shown at 32.--a. collar prevents the vertical movement of the bevel gear while the casing prevents its move ment in the opposite direction. Therefore,

till) when the bevel gear is rotated by the motor 29, it feeds the central shaft either upwardly or downwardly according to the rotation of the reversible motor 29.

Returning now to the particular operation of the mechanism, when the sleeve 11 has been lowered to a position shown in the full lines in Fig. 2 so that the shaft and extension arms 33 remain collapsed but are within the chamher, the sleeve is rotated by rotation of the casing 8 by means of the motor 19. During the rotation the sleeve is gradually lowered so that the lower edges of the extension arms 33-a cut their way through the substance accumulated in the chamber. As the sleeve reaches the dotted line position shown in Fig. 2, the motor 29 is utilized to push out the inner shaft to dotted line positions, at which time the extension arms are spread as shown. This extension of the shaft is effected by the motor through the bevel gears and screw thread arrangement explained. The extension of the arms is produced by their connection with the casing at 34 and with-the shaft at 35. During the vertical movement of the sleeve and inner shaft, the entire mechanism mounted with the sleeve is rotated with the casing 8 so that the collected substance in the chamber is completely broken up and disintegrated. With the arms now in extended position the sleeve 11 is raised by reversing the motor 16, resulting in the breaking up of the accumulated substance as the'extension arms rotate in the chamber. lln this manner, this collected material may be brolren into fragments and easily removed from the lower portion of the chamber from which is re: moved the'cleaning plate diagrammatically shown at 36.

In describing the method of using the cleaning apparatus, a course has been followed in which the sleeve and boring edges are first lowered and caused to cut a circular hole through the substance by continuous rotation. Instead of th s method, the extension arms may be widened near the throat of the chamber and caused to gradually work their wav downward as they are rotated in place of first cutting a central hole and being extended near the lower portion of the chamher, the purpose being in either case to thorill (BED

oughly disintegrate the carbonaceous substance collected in the chambers in order that it may be more readilyremoved therefrom. After cleaning the central shaft is again retarded at which time the extension arms are collapsed and the sleeve raised towithdraw the cutting end of the shaft and extension blades or arms from the chamber. The carriage can then be released from the bed plates by letting go the hooks 15, and the carriage transferred by means of the motor 23 to the next unit to be cleaned.

' This method is particularly adapted to the cleaning of precipitated carbon in crackaeaaoee ing units, as where a carboncontainin oil is treated considerable accumulations of relatively solid material collect in the chambers, and it is difficult to remove unless some mechanical means is provided for breaking up and disintegrating the substance.

During the removal of the carbon, it may be necessary to supply steam either superheated or otherwise, to the chamber in order to quenchthe material which under certain conditions may tend to flash where the temperature is suficiently high.

In the above description of an apparatus suitable for carrying out my method, it have shown an apparatus positioned above the vapor chambers. It is well within the scope of my invention to position the cleaning apparatus beneath the chambers, and to carry out the cleaning of the chamber during the upward motion of the sleeve and boring edges and cutting devices.

ll do not wish to limit myself to the apparatus described in detail therein and any modification thereof to carry out the method of cleaning chambers by means of an upward.- ly or downwardly movable rotating element having extensible cutting arms mounted thereon is well within the scope of my inven tion.

What I claim as my invention is:

A method of removing substantially solid carbonaceous deposits from the interior of enlarged chambers employed in hydrocarbon oil cracking processes, which comprises initially penetrating the mass of such material forming a passage having an access opening of relatively small cross sectional area, and thereafter uniformly expanding the diameter of said passage beyond the access opening from a minimum diameter near said access opening to a maximum diameter near the inner end of said passage, by taking rotary cuts of uniformly increasing diameter as the mass is penetrated.

LWMN C. HUJFF. 

